UPPER NAPPAN, N.S. – It might be a good time to take your garbage sorting skills to a new level.
The Municipality of Cumberland County passed a motion Wednesday night to ‘approve a change to its solid waste management separation, collection and processing services from single-stream to two-stream recycling.’
“Two-stream collection is not that much different, other than all of your fibres, paper cardboard etc., goes into one bag, and everything else goes into another bag,” said Stephen Rayworth, solid waste manager at the Cumberland Joint Services Management Authority (CJSMA).
Two-stream recycling is not a certainty. Amherst and Oxford need to follow suit before it’s implemented in Cumberland County.
“I want to emphasize that if we are going to make the switch, it has to be co-ordinated with the three municipal units,” said Rayworth. “We made switches in the past that have not been (co-ordinated) but this is one that you could not do otherwise for a number of reasons.”
Amherst will discuss the issue in late November. Oxford had planned to discuss the issue this week but cancelled the meeting and scheduled it for a later date.
Lynn Welton, councillor for District 5, is already practicing her two-stream recycling skills.
“I started doing the dual-stream recycling myself before the last collection period,” said Welton. “Having tried it I think it’s great.”
After a fire at the CJSMA recycling facility on Sept. 12 destroyed the single-stream facility, the CJSMA recommended the county design and construct a two-stream recycling facility.
Cumberland County is the only municipality in Nova Scotia without a two-stream recycling system, and Rayworth said world commodity markets are demanding higher quality garbage.
“The materials aren’t co-mingled, so it’s a cleaner product meaning it’s easier to sell and we get more money for it,” said Rayworth.
If two-stream recycling is implemented in Cumberland County residents will have six months to learn the new system.
“We are recommending a six-month education program before we transition to dual-stream if that’s the direction we want,” said Rayworth.
